Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to reducing signaling during access point (AP) to AP handoff in dense networks.
Background
In dense wireless local area networks (WLANs), stations (STAs) may be frequently handed off among different APs. Frequent handoffs may result in a greater proportion of signaling overhead to facilitate the handoffs. A greater proportion of signaling overhead to facilitate handoffs may result in a greater proportion of dropped or delayed packets during handoffs. Issues related to dropped or delayed packets may be magnified when handoffs are more frequent, such as in networks that employ fractal frequency reuse or networks that have densely located APs transmitting at a lower power. Accordingly, there is a need to reduce signaling overhead during handoffs in order to improve handoff efficiency and to reduce dropped or delayed packets due to the signaling overhead during handoffs.